RTÉ Sport and the GAA are giving away a ‘Golden Season Ticket’ this week on Drivetime Sport.

This is basically the gaelic games equivalent of the Golden Ticket from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and will get you into any GAA game of your choice, anywhere in the country, throughout 2009. This includes big games in Croke Park and you can even use it more than once a day! That’s if your transport capabilities are up to the task, admittedly. Still, it’s a great prize.

Anyways, you’ve probably guessed that I wouldn’t be mentioning it here if a quiz wasn’t involved and you’d be right. They’re running a quiz all this week to find a suitable person to bestow this prize on.

Each night from Monday to Wednesday, a celebrity quizmaster will ask three questions. Judging by the standard of Monday’s questions (asked by Mícheál Ó Muircheartaigh), this could be one of the hardest quizzes we’ll come across here on the blog.

On January 21st 1919, the Sinn Féin MPs who were neither on-the-run from British Authorities or already in prison convened the first meeting of the Assembly of Ireland, the Dáil Éireann, in Dublin’s Mansion House.

This has been an election promise of the Sinn Féin party in the 1918 General Election, in which the party had won 73 (48 by ballot, 25 uncontested) of the 105 seats available in Ireland. The 26 Unionist MPs and the six from the IPP refused to recognise the Dáil, and thus were never going to attend. Taking this (and the other absentees) into account, only 27 deputies were listed as ‘present’. Even this number may not be completely accurate, however, as two members are neither marked as present or absent – and one of them made a speech on the day!

As part of out impromptu History Week here on the quiz blog, we ask you to identify these famous attendees on that significant day. Click more to see the pics.

In honour of the day that’s in it, here’s a small quiz on the office of President of the United States of America.

No matter what you heard on QI, the official list of Presidents of the United States begins with George Washington, as he was the first president sworn into office following the ratification of the United States Constitution in 1789.

With that baseline fact declared, let’s begin.

In percentage terms, how many Electoral College votes did George Washington receive when elected in 1789?

The playing of which song accompanies the President at almost every public appearance?

The 2nd President, John Adams, and the 6th President, John Quincy Adams, were related. How?

Quincy is one of only two presidents to remain in politics after their term. The other not only served in the Senate but is also one of only two presidents who have been impeached and is the most recent president who represented a party other than the Democrats or Republicans. Name him.

After Abraham Lincoln, one other president was assassinated in the 19th Century. Who?

Before John F. Kennedy, one other president was assassinated in the 20th Century. Who?

Who entered professional politics for the first time, becoming Governor of New Jersey, just two years before being elected president?

How many times was Franklin D. Roosevelt elected president?

Who is the most recent president to have served for a time without a Vice-President?

Barack Obama’s is the 44th Presidency but how many men have actually been President?

In the second of a quickly diminishing series, here’s how the RTÉSports Dept Christmas quiz, hosted by Des Cahill, turned out.

The first thing I’ll say about this quiz is that the competitors certainly enjoyed themselves. Indeed, the competitors here sound like things may have been a bit “festive” around the RTÉ studios that day. No wonder Eamon Dunphy feels at home there.

The star of the show is undoubtedly Joanne Cantwell. Here, clearly, is a sports reporter who likes sport, and isn’t just a pretty face reading off an autocue from the Croke Park sideline. By the end of the quiz, her back may have been sore from carrying her teammates. At one point, Des even lets her tell her opponents how they fared on a multi-part question!

The scoring system gets a bit out of whack towards the end, which levels things up. This may have been on purpose – I’m sure sports correspondents will always prefer if an event goes down to the wire.